Oil Caps Grab Series Lead

  The Virden Oil Capitals picked up their third straight win Monday night, and grabbed the series lead in the first round playoff matchup with the Swan Valley Stampeders in the process.
 
  Adam Iwan stopped 31 shots including 26 over the final 40 minutes and Artsiom Kalashnikov scored a pair of goals to give the Oil Caps a 4-1 victory over the Stampeders before 1,349 fans at Tundra Oil & Gas Place.
 
  That gives Virden a 3-2 lead in the Best-of-Seven Sher-Wood Division semifinal.
 
  Jordan Greig’s goal midway through the second period snapped a 1-1 tie, and gave momentum back to Virden after the Stampeders had scored with seven seconds left in the opening frame to tie the game.
 
  "Everyone was confident.  We knew it was a bit of a mixup, but we all knew we had it in us to beat these guys this game," said Greig, "Everyone pulled together and we pulled out the win."
 
  "The thing that really helped us there even was just the penalty-kill," added Oil Caps’ GM/Coach Troy Leslie, "You come out in the second period, you have to be focused that first minute and a half. Maybe that helped us in that situation."
 
  Lucas Oliver also scored for Virden while Jake Dudar added a pair of assists.
 
  Virden has rallied from a 2-0 series deficit to move themselves to within one win of advancing to the second round of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League playoffs.
 
  "We knew we had it in us, we just needed to get our game together and play a good 200 foot game and a full 60 minutes," said Iwan, "We had a tough break in game two there, losing in double overtime, but we just stuck to our game plan, stuck to our structure and we’ve been doing well."
 
  Game six of the series is Wednesday night in Swan River.
 
  If Game Seven is necessary, it would be Friday night in Virden.